Americas

In the final weeks of the election, Schwarzenegger was forced to
publicly “apologize” to over a dozen women for his past sexual
harassment, and he still won. Does this Republican’s election indicate
that voters in California and the U.S. in general are moving to the
right?

Rather than a shift to the right, the election reflected voters’ anger
toward Democratic Governor Gray Davis, specifically his balancing of the
budget on the backs of working-class people and his failure to address
California’s loss of decent-paying jobs. Exit polls, for example, found
that voters made their decisions primarily on how they viewed Davis and
his record, not Schwarzenegger’s.

Remember the blackouts in California in 2001? Rather than making the
energy corporations like Enron financially responsible for the power
shortages that they artificially created, Davis used $1 billion of
public funds to bail out the private companies. He also signed long-term
contracts with them worth $43 billion, to purchase power at rates they
artificially inflated (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/2/03). People saw this
for the corruption that it was, as Davis had received $700,000 in
political contributions from these same companies.

Davis’ support was also severely undermined by the sharp economic
downturn, when the Internet technology companies collapsed and
approximately 250,000 manufacturing jobs were eliminated, angering
millions of workers. This economic recession, plus Davis’ caving in to
the power companies, resulted in a massive $38 billion budget deficit.

In attempting to solve this severe budget crisis, Davis refused to
reverse the 1990s tax breaks for corporations and the rich, or to cut
back the expanding prison system, where a generation of young Black men
are locked away. Instead, he raised taxes that disproportionately burden
workers, such as tripling the vehicle tax – a frustrating issue brought
up by almost everyone interviewed as they exited the polls.

Davis and the Democrat-controlled state legislature also slashed popular
social services - for example, cutting the community colleges’ budget by
$259 million. Other cuts forced the University of California system to
raise tuition by at least 25% (Legislative Analyst’s Office).

Unsurprisingly, lower-income voters tended to support the recall. With
the recall looming, Davis tried to portray himself as a progressive in a
desperate attempt to win back the strong block of left-leaning workers
and people of color. He also signed a bill to allow undocumented workers
to obtain drivers’ licenses in a last ditch effort to attract Latino
voters, but it was too little, too late. Approximately 45% of Latinos
voted for the recall.

Davis couldn’t even count on union members, who were crucial for his
victories in the last two elections. Despite the tremendous effort by
union leaders to get out the vote for Davis – including donating more
than $10 million to Davis and the Democrats - 50% of union households
ignored labor’s call to vote for Davis.

Schwarzenegger won 48% of the vote, and Lieutenant-Governor Cruz
Bustamante, the Democrats’ post-recall candidate, received 32% of the
vote - not because voters were enthusiastic about Schwarzenegger, but
because they wanted to register their opposition to Bustamente who had
been second-in-command to Davis for five years. Bustamante didn’t help
himself by tying his fate to the hated Davis by campaigning against
Davis’s recall.

The fact that voter turnout was 20.2% higher than the regular election a
year ago shows that voters saw a rare opportunity to make an actual
impact on politics and send a message to the arrogant, out-of-touch
corporate political establishment.

Two days before the election, Steve Bustin, a Novato, California
resident, explained: “My guess is most people who will vote for the
recall are not 100% in favor of the recall. However, they see no other
alternative. This is the only way to get the attention of politicians –
essentially, to fire them. The fact that Schwarzenegger may still lead
in the polls is not a function of people’s admiration for
Schwarzenegger. It’s a function of the depth of disgust people have for
the political system" (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/10/03).

It was Davis’s (and Bustamente’s) attacks on working class people,
especially with no credible working class alternative, that allowed the
action movie star to step in from outside the hated political
establishment - with his name recognition and media attention - and win.

The overwhelming vote (64%) against the racist Proposition 54 also
disproves the idea that voters embraced the conservative agenda. Even
Republican strategists acknowledged that voters would never elect a
right-wing Republican - more evidence that voters do not support
right-wing ideas. That’s why the Republican Party backed the moderate
Schwarzenegger instead of the more extreme conservative Republican Tom
McClintock.

Green Party candidate Peter Camejo came in fourth place with 225,000
votes (3%), despite the serious weaknesses in his program, showing that
there are voters who were prepared to register a progressive protest
vote against both corporate parties.

Above all, the recall shows how counter-productive it is to continuously
support “the lesser of two evils.” Democratic politicians make promises
to working people and the oppressed, but once elected, they are
unwilling to stand up to big business and the market system. This forces
them to break most of their promises and carry out unpopular policies
like balancing budgets on the backs of the working class.

Supporting a “less evil” Democrat just results in voters getting angry
at the Democrats’ attacks on workers’ living standards and electing a
Republican. Then voters get angry with the Republican, and another Gray
Davis is elected, and the cycle starts all over again.

The recall election shows how rapidly political events can unfold,
particularly in these volatile times when the capitalist economy is
stagnating, which can cause sudden huge budget deficits, layoffs, cuts
in social services, and tax hikes for workers. Davis was first elected
in 1998 with 58% of the vote. His support began to decline, and he was
barely re-elected with 47% in 2002. Just three months later, his public
support fell quite rapidly, and 55% of Californians voted to recall him.

If the California AFL-CIO labor federation and organizations
representing women, civil rights, and the environment had not succumbed
to the pressure to back Davis in November 2002, and instead used their
powerful resources to build an independent workers’ party or run an
independent workers’ candidate for Governor, they would have been poised
to take advantage of the revulsion that developed towards Davis only one
year later.

The rotten two-party system will experience more shocks like this
election and the election of the wrestler and independent Jesse Ventura
as Governor of Minnesota in 1998. Now is the time to harness the growing
working class discontent to break out of the endless cycle of
lesser-evilism and build a mass workers’ party.